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4:13am June 29, 2015

Fey is already doing better.

At least, all of us who are watching her think so.  Her behavior is changing back to doing things she used to do that I’d totally forgotten she’d stopped doing (like memorizing the staff schedule and freaking out if people don’t show up on time or leave early, greeting people at the door, and insisting on wet food NOW), and she’s looking less like she’s wearing a tight-laced corset or something.  Less bony.  Still too bony, but we think she’s putting on weight.  (I should buy a cat scale or something next month so I can keep track of that, we don’t want her to lose any more weight, she’s already skin and bones.)  So we’re all cautiously optimistic about these new meds.

Best of all, they’re in a gel form where you put a weird little finger glove (it looks like a condom only finger-sized) on and put the gel on that and then rub it on the inside of her ear.  She’s still sensitive on her left ear, but she tolerates it, and when it’s her right ear she thinks I’m just giving her ear scritches.  (I alternate ears every day.)  It gets absorbed through the skin, meaning no pills and no shots and no power struggles and no humans having to go on antibiotics because her response to pills is to hork them up even if you get them down her throat, and then to sink her teeth as far into you as they can possibly go.  So this is good for everyone involved.  It’s a little more expensive than pills, but it’s worth the money because the pills wouldn’t work anyway and I’d pay anything to keep her alive.  (Also part of the pay is a labor charge for the compounding pharmacy, so if I buy them in bulk I get a huge discount compared to buying only a month’s supply.  I’ve just bought a month’s supply the first month because I wanted to be sure it worked before committing.)

So that’s the Fey update.

Sorry again for not being able to write a lot, but it’s very hard for me to form words lately.

2:40pm June 9, 2015

Fey health update.

We found out why she’s throwing up and losing weight and everything.

Here’s what the paperwork says:

CATS VERMONT - Veterinary clinic for cats

Fey Baggs

Lab work –> Hyperthyroidism –

common older age cat problem.

Treatment options:

* Medication – pills or ear gel – once or twice daily – lifetime

* I131 – @ BEVS – curative procedure

Plan – start medication; while deciding ultimate plan.

L. Moore, DVM

So I’m probably going to go for the ear gel in the meantime, because Fey can deliberately cough up any pill I get her to swallow, and then bite me without holding back, making  me  have to go on antibiotics.  Ear gel lets it go in through the skin on their ears, and she doesn’t like having her ears messed with but she will like it better than daily power struggles with pills or even liquid meds.

I’m glad it’s something treatable.  I’m not sure if I will be able to afford the radioactive iodine treatment even though it’s supposed to cure it. They sent me a brochure just in case.  I’d have to go to a new vet for this, since Cats Vermont doesn’t do the procedure, and come up with money somehow, and I’m not sure whether the money is a little out of my price range or way out of my price range.  (I’m comfortable asking for money from a friend if it’s a little out of my price range, but if it’s $1000 or something I’d either have to formally set up some kind of fund system for her, or I’d have to just resign myself to her being on thyroid meds the rest of her life just like I’ll be on steroids the rest of my life.  I’d love to cure her though.  But I’m sure the cure is not without risks, especially in a 16-year-old cat, and I’d want to talk to the vet about this.)

I’m actually surprised the bloodwork came back with something so obvious and easy though.

Here’s what the brochure says:

FELINE HYPERTHYROID TREATMENT WITH RADIOIODINE

Radioiodine Therapy (131I) is the preferred treatment for feline hyperthyoidism.  The treatment is safe, highly effective and permanent.  Radioiodine is given as one injection under the skin similar to a routine feline vaccine.

If it’s one injection I’m wondering why it’s so expensive?

Oh wow I think I’ve actually been to this other vet before.  Not with Fey, but with a friend’s parrots, including the night her last parrot died.  (It was horrible, my friend was screaming and crying and wailing and everyone in the waiting room felt horrible for her but didn’t know what to do to make anything better.  We knew he was dying when we took him in but we had to try.  He made it as far as the exam, stood up, tried to talk, and water poured out his beak and he died.  Fortunately this happened away from my friend, she just got to hold the body afterwards, which seemed to calm her down a bit.  This place is also the local 24/7 emergency vet, so I’m very familiar with them from lots of parrot emergencies.  They’re pretty good, especially with the range of animals they have to deal with in a range of situations.  I’m sure they’d handle Fey’s treatment well if I could find a way to pay them.  I’ll have to get a quote on the amount, and see whether I can afford it, or whether I’d have to ask for help, or set up online fundraising, or just forget about it entirely and plan on giving her meds the rest of her life.  Which is hardly the end of the world – I’m on steroids the rest of my life after all.  And the rest of her life could be anything from a month to years, cats are unpredictable when they get old.  She’s sixteen right now, which is over the average feline lifespan but only by a little.  Many cats live to 18-20, and a few even live older.  And she’s definitely a tough old lady.  I think if Death came to her and she didn’t think she was ready she could scare the crap out of Death and send it running… for awhile.  :-P)